WEDNESDAY
March 18 2015
Vol. 106 No. 21
CITY LIVING 12
Under the PlayDome FAMILY 13
Vaisakhi Day ahead STATE OF THE ARTS 21
One-man Obaaberima There’s more online at
vancourier.com MIDWEEK EDITION
THE VOICE of VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS since 1908
Yes side lacks Olympic touch Length of campaign a worry
Bob Mackin
bob@bobmackin.ca
It was a mistake to turn the TransLink funding vote into a two-and-a-half month marathon, says the leader of the Yes campaign in the City of Vancouver’s sprintlike, 2003 Olympic bid plebiscite. “I just worry with it dragging out that a lot of people may not ultimately vote, they’ll just get tired of the debate,” Concert Properties chair David Podmore told the Courier. In 2013, the B.C. Liberals promised a referendum on new TransLink funding to coincide with the November 2014 municipal elections. It was delayed and downgraded to the non-binding, March 16 to May 29 mail-in plebiscite. Podmore’s Team Yes 2010 was victorious Feb. 22, 2003 when 86,113 voted to support Vancouver’s bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics, versus 48,651 op-
posed. That plebiscite happened after COPE Mayor Larry Campbell’s 2002 election promise. The Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation, chaired by thenConcert boss Jack Poole, won the July 2, 2003 International Olympic Committee host city election. Podmore said that Concert donated $10,000 to the Yes to Better Transit and Transportation campaign and he has offered advice. “You need a single point of contact, you need an individual in the community that everyone would respect and to be the proactive lead,” Podmore said. “I know that Iain [Black] and Peter Robinson and others are actively out there telling the story of what this can mean for our community. So far there hasn’t been a personality attached to this, other than [Jim] Pattison in terms of the oversight, if the plebiscite proceeds. Which I hope it does.” Chris Shaw led No Games 2010 and says the 2015 Yes campaign is also an odd alliance of political, business and labour interests who are making lofty promises to help a magnet for controver-
sy. Back then it was the Bid Corporation. Today it is TransLink. No Games 2010 opposed diverting money from healthcare and education to subsidize the Olympics. Bid boosters urged voters to ignore B.C. Liberal social services cutbacks and claimed the Games would bring new infrastructure, spur economic growth and benefit hospitals and schools in the long-run. “It’s hard not for anybody to know how this city has evolved, especially during the Olympic period, and even from Expo, not to see the hands of developers behind this,” Shaw said. “When you put Vision Vancouver and Pattison on the same side, the smell of that becomes fairly apparent.” Podmore admitted “developers are holding back a bit.” “If we were to lead this, people would say, ‘oh well that’s the developers, you know they’re going to benefit from this,’” Podmore said. “The whole community benefits from the development of transitoriented communities.” As in 2003, there are no campaign
financing or reporting rules. Shaw said his group raised $5,000 but believes Team Yes 2010’s $700,000 was supplemented by the provincial government. No TransLink Tax claimed $27,259.80 in donations as of March 11. TransLink’s Mayors’ Council has a $6-million taxpayer-funded Yes campaign budget. Yes to Better Transit and Transportation hasn’t decided whether to publish its donations. The 2003 vote led to seven years of $6 billion to $8 billion in spending to build and operate the Games, with legacies like the $800-million Sea-to-Sky Highway upgrade and $2 billion Canada Line. In 2002, InterVistas estimated B.C.’s economy would grow by $10.7 billion from hosting the Games and building the Vancouver Convention Centre. When it was over, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated the “Games Effect” was more likely $2.34 billion. The bid book estimated $1.3 billion for Games operations. VANOC dissolved in 2014 claiming a balanced $1.9-billion budget. Continued on page 7
Port fire fans fears Dangerous cargo prompts questions
Jen St. Denis
jstdenis@biv.com
AGONY OF DEFEAT The Tupper Tiger’s winning streak ended Saturday night in Langley when they lost the senior boys B.C. basketball championship to Surrey’s Fleetwood Park Dragons. See story on page 22. PHOTO CHUNG CHOW
As accidents involving chemicals go, Vancouver got lucky. On the afternoon of March 4, a shipping container caught fire on the city’s waterfront. The container was full of a commonly used chemical called trichloroisocyanuric acid that had been shipped from China, according to Port Metro Vancouver. As health officials warned that exposure to the smoke could cause breathing problems and eye irritation, the port was evacuated and city residents within a five-kilometre area downtown and around the Downtown Eastside were told to stay indoors, shut doors and windows and turn off air conditioners and furnaces. The large plume of smoke wafted east and north to North Vancouver and Burnaby, causing concern in those communities as well. But by nightfall, the shelter-in-place advisory had been lifted and the fire was mostly under control. Continued on page 4